First

7. Breadcrumbs

We sped-walk about twenty blocks through the heart of downtown before we finally came upon the weathered wooden sign that spelled "DUKE'S" in rough-hewn letters.

The entrance was guarded by a bear of a man with a bald, tattooed head. He lazily held out a hand as wide as a spade as we approached. Jake presented his ID for inspection as the rest of the group dug in their wallets.

Shit.

I made no motion to try and retrieve mine. There was no point. The man would look down at a photo that made me look like a hag and see that below the words, "Christensen, Sarah Lee" was a birth date that made it quite clear I was not of legal drinking age.

Jake turned to see that, once again, I was not following his lead.

"Sarah," he snapped.

"I'll wait out here," I told him.

"What, why?" Kyle asked.

"Why not?" I replied innocently.

Jake glared daggers at me.

"I'm underage," I mumbled.

The legal drinking age here was eighteen.

"You're seventeen?" Sam repeated, loud enough for the whole street to hear.

Thanks, Sam.

"Fine," Jake snapped, as though it was my fault I hadn't been born a year earlier. "Wait here."

That's what I said.

"I'll wait with you," Kyle said.

"Really?"

"Yes. I know you're brave but we're not going to leave a pretty thing like you alone on the street at 1 a.m."

My cheeks radiated heat like a solar flare.

Sam snorted. "Careful, Kyle. She's jail-bait."

"What?" I asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"Nothing," he replied innocently.

"I'll stay too!" Katie offered generously, smiling up at Kyle.

"Same," said Sam with a hopeful glance at Katie.

Khaled waved a cheerful goodbye and was instantly greeted by some friends on the staircase inside.

Jake's face was set in such a scowl that his jaw was likely to fall off his face, but he turned and entered the doorway and ascended a steep wooden staircase after Khaled.

Sam smiled at Katie, who was gazing at Kyle, who was looking at me.

Well, this is awkward.

"You guys should have gone in!" I protested. "What if they need you?"

Kyle shrugged, leaning casually against a railing to show he was staying put. "They're trying to spy. It's probably best if we don't storm the place."

I fidgeted with Katie's gloves.

"So what brought you to engineering?" Kyle asked casually.

I glanced up to make sure he was talking to me. "Oh. I guess I just really enjoy the feeling of knives stabbing my brain," I informed him, thinking of the few classes that I'd been relatively conscious for.